


Dead End

by LinksLipsSinkShips



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Fictober 2019, Gen, Haunting rumors, Scary Story to tell in the Dark, corn maze
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 22:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20881340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinksLipsSinkShips/pseuds/LinksLipsSinkShips
Summary: Is the Elroy Corn Maze actually haunted? Link doesn't care to find out himself, but when Rhett becomes obsessed with answers, the pair enter it in the dark of night.**PLEASE NOTE: I chose not to use archive warnings but that doesn't mean there aren't any contained in this story. If you have specific triggers, please message me on tumblr and I'll inform you privately, but be aware it would contain spoilers**





	Dead End

“You hear about the corn maze this year?”

“What, on Elroy farms? That’s kid stuff, man,” Link said, shrugging as he returned his focus to licking the last of the applesauce out of the bottom of the container with an obscene slurp.

“No, the one over off of 197th street, man. The haunted one.”

Rhett’s ears perked up the minute he heard the word haunted, and Link could see the wheels turning over what Tony was saying. “What about it?”

“You really haven’t heard?” Tony leaned in and affected a conspiratorial whisper. “Rumor has it it’s the real deal when it comes to hauntings. During the day it’s all plastic ghosts and fuzzy store-bought spiders lurking, but after dark? It gets  _ real _ .”

“What kinda real?” Link tried to control his voice, but there was a tell-tale squeak of fear on the last word.

“Can’t tell you. You have to go look to find out. I haven’t heard of anybody that made it out alive…” Tony hissed, picking up his lunch tray and standing.

“Bull,” Rhett said. “Look around, man. Everybody’s still here. If nobody’s made it out alive, that must mean nobody found it worth going into, because  _ no one  _ has gone missing or anything.” He rolled his eyes and dismissed Tony with a wave, then turned back to Link, who was wide-eyed, tongue still hanging out from licking his applesauce.

“No,” Link said before Rhett even had a chance to suggest it.

“Come on, man. We  _ have  _ to.”

“We don’t have to, Rhett. We don’t have to go somewhere that’s bound to get us killed. Staying home isn’t just a valid option, it’s literally the  _ only  _ option,” Link protested, but he knew he was going to lose the battle. Anytime Rhett had that particular look in his eyes, there was no use fighting. Which meant on Friday night, he’d be lured into a corn maze in the dark.  _ Great _ .

* * *

“Come on, it’ll be fun. Trust me,” Rhett said, standing at the entrance of the corn maze.

They’d parked up the road and walked, against Link’s better judgment.  _ What if we have to run and leave and the car is half a mile up the road?  _ But Rhett had insisted so they didn’t get caught sneaking in. The corn maze had closed well over an hour before, but that was the point.

Rhett stepped over the barrier. “Well? You coming?”

Link didn’t like the idea of being on this side of the small wooden barrier that blocked the front entrance after closing when Rhett was on the other side of it, so he gave a small nod and tentatively stepped over it. His heart was beating so hard he could hear it in his ears. “Okay. We came. Let’s go.”

“Nope. We gotta get through the maze, man!” Rhett said, clicking on a flashlight and holding it to his chin, lighting his face with an eerie glow. “What’re you so afraid of, Neal? It’s just a corn maze. Kids go in and out of this place all day long.”

“It isn’t day,” Link insisted. “How the heck are we gonna find our way through at night? We don’t even have a map!”

“Maps are for cheaters,” Rhett said. “Come on.” He led the way, feet stalking across the straw at their feet designed to keep the place from becoming a muddy mess. Link followed behind, nervous. “Which way? Right or left?”

“I dunno,” Link said. He didn’t. He hadn’t the slightest idea about where they were supposed to go.

“Okay. We flip a coin then. Heads we go right, tails left.” Rhett reached in his pocket, shuffling around as he pulled out a quarter and flipped it. “Heads. We go right.”

Link nodded and followed behind. “What was that?” He jumped, startling at a snapping sound.

“Chill out, man. I stepped on a twig.” Rhett kicked the stick with his foot and kept walking.

“Didn’t sound like a dang twig,” Link snapped back, voice in a low whisper. The whole place creeped him out. The rustle of the corn stalks against each other, the sound of owls hooting and crickets chirping. The constant noise was startling, not calming, and Link didn’t want to be in the corn maze anymore. “Can’t we leave?”

“We just got here,” Rhett protested. “Dead end. We gotta go back and make the other turn.” He turned around, and Link followed behind obediently.

“Why not just turn the whole way around and leave the maze?”

“Because it isn’t fun that way,” Rhett argued.

Link pressed on, nerves getting the best of him.  _ Rhett’s right. You’re being a big baby. It’s just a corn maze. Just a corn maze. People come in and out of here all the time. _ He kept thinking the same things on repeat, reminding himself it was just a maze, but it didn’t make him feel any better. Still, Rhett seemed to find the right way, weaving back and forth through the tall stalks and making turns at the right places. For a long while, they didn’t even reach another dead end. Link was thankful for that.

Rhett focused on the stalks, flashlight trained on them, while Link kept his on the ground, shuffling along and grasping Rhett’s shirt in his hand, looking down.

“Shoot. Dead end,” Rhett finally said. Link moved his light forward and jumped.

“Oh God! Rhett, yeah, dead end. Dead end, come on…” He trained his light at the ground, at a small, bloodied animal in the straw at Rhett’s feet.

“It’s okay, Link. Just an animal that got on the wrong side of an owl’s dinner. It’s tough, but that’s nature.”

Link wasn’t so sure. As they walked, he stole glances up. The stalks rustled with movement, and he could feel eyes on them. “Are you sure we’re not being watched?”

“We’re not!” Rhett promised. “Come on, Link. If anybody else is out here, they’re just doin’ the same thing we are. It’s fine.” He looks around. “There’s nobody here anyway. See? Quiet down for a second.” They stayed in place and listened. Crickets still. Owls still. The soft breeze through corn stalks still. Nothing new. Nothing frightening. Link’s breathing started to slow.  _ Okay. We’re safe. It’s just nature. _

Nature wasn’t scary to Link. They’d spent plenty of time in the woods by the Cape Fear River, or exploring. But those places didn’t have the claustrophobia-inducing panic the corn maze did. “How much longer? Are we almost done?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Rhett asked. How long was the maze? How far had they gotten? Neither of them really knew. “We can’t be too far away from the end. We gotta just keep moving forward.” He shrugged.

Link felt disoriented. Without the sunlight and without any moon in the sky, they were without any indicator of direction or anything. “I hope we’re out soo—what was  _ that? _ ”

This time, Rhett couldn’t deny that there was a sound. It was too clear, and it was too distant to be a snapped twig. “I don’t know,” Rhett confessed. He reached back and took Link’s hand. If they were going to be confronted by something, they were doing it together. After a moment of no more noise, he calmed, whispering, “probably just somebody else going through the maze.”

Link nodded, mouth dry, hands sweaty. “Yeah.” Still, he could tell Rhett was getting nervous too because he was moving faster, walking forward at a quicker pace and tugging Link behind him. “Rhett, I don’t think we’re alone here.”

“It’s just other people,” Rhett kept saying, and after a while, Link wondered if he was trying to convince Link or convince himself.

“What if it isn’t?”

“It is.”

“Did you tell anyone else we were coming?” Link finally asked.

“Just Tony,” Rhett hissed back. “He told us to come, so I told him we were.”

“You  _ told  _ him?” Link asked. “Great. Now he’s gonna screw with us to freak me out!” He lamented, stamping his foot.

“Nah, it’s an away game, remember?” Rhett said. That was true. Tony was a die-hard football player, and everybody knew he’d never miss a game. Ever. If Link was worried about anything, it wouldn’t be Tony during an away game.

“Okay.” Link kept following. After another twenty minutes, he realized they had to be reaching the end. There wasn’t much more left to go, not many more steps. He started to breathe easily. “Okay, we’re almost out, right?”

“Think so.”

Link heaved another sigh. It was good. It was okay. They were going to make it out alive. His heart wasn’t racing again, and even as he heard the rustle of corn stalks, he gave an easy smile. “Just a corn mouse, right?”

“Right,” Rhett whispered back. “I’m gonna take an ear of corn off of the stalk, prove we made it through.”

“Good idea,” Link said, watching as Rhett reached up the stalk and took an ear of corn down, stuffing it in his baggy jean pockets. Now nobody could refute that they’d been there. Link smiled, a wide grin. “I’m glad you made me do this, Rhett.”

“It’s all just fun, Link,” Rhett smiled back. “I don’t know what you were so freaked out about.” Still, Rhett took his hand again. They’d made it this far through the maze like that, and it seemed to work fine.

* * *

Link could be a real scaredy cat sometimes. Rhett didn’t usually mind his best friend’s panic, but at the corn maze, it had been more than a little annoying. It was just a maze. His panic? So blown out of proportion. Sure, it was spooky. There were little noises and moments. But that was the fun of going at night. If Rhett wanted to explore a boring old corn maze, they could’ve gone during the day like a bunch of kids. But that wasn’t fun or daring or adventurous. No, coming at night was the right idea. And anyway, Link had gotten calmer, so what did it matter?

Still, Rhett couldn’t ignore the slight heart palpitations he got over some of the sounds too. Link was overreacting, but Rhett hadn’t fully anticipated how spooky it really would be in the dark. He looked around, scanning his surroundings with the flashlight as he told Link it was all just fun, and gave his hand a small squeeze.

“Yeah. Just fun,” Link agreed. And then he screamed.

Rhett whipped around, facing Link and grasping his hand tight, not letting go until they were yanked apart. “Link!” he shrieked.

“Rhett! Help me!” Link screamed, kicking as two figures in black cloaks dragged him backward through the corn. Rhett ran after him, pushing his way through the stalks, no longer following the route and instead listening to Link’s screams.

They were getting too far away. “Link!” he shouted.

“Rhett!” Link screamed. There was a loud, anguished cry...and then silence.

Rhett raced through the corn, tripping and falling forward, hands scraped in the mud and body cut by the stalks. He scrambled to reach the flashlight, hand groping forward in the dark as it flickered off.

He felt the breath on his skin before he heard anyone approach. “Having fun?” a familiar voice asked, and then the world went dark.

* * *

A paper fluttered in the breeze, stapled to a telephone pole. It matched hundreds of others in Buies Creek, stapled to every surface as if people hadn’t already heard the news.

MISSING, the poster read.

CHARLES LINCOLN NEAL, 17 and RHETT JAMES MCLAUGHLIN, 18

A brief description underneath talked about their height, their physical description, and the date they’d last been seen. Tony came to a stalk and stared at the poster, eyes meeting the haunting printed black-and-white photos of Rhett and Link on the page. He looked down and kicked at the pole, boot crunching with snow, then looked up. “Nobody’s ever gonna find you,” he mumbled, tearing the flyer from the pole, crumpling it up, and dropping it in a nearby trash can as he walked through the snow-packed sidewalks of the tiny town, population now down by two.


End file.
